People, Places and Things - NT / Tour / Trafalgar Revival

Denise Gough has posted on Instagram that some inconsiderate person filmed her performance today which, understandably, totally threw her. Some people really are a*seholes.
As an aside, the show will be on NT at Home.

How appalling, I think they should kick out any member of the audience that does this.

I saw this yesterday. I wasn't really bothered about going, but I managed to get a rush ticket because my friend already had a ticket. I thought it was brilliant and Denise Gough is incredible. I can't believe I nearly missed seeing this!

It was my first time back at Trafalgar since the refit and it's a wonderful looking theatre now.

I saw PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS on Thursday evening (8th August). I saw the original production of this at the Wyndham’s in 2016 and loved it then, so wanted to see Denise Gough reprise her performance. It was just as good as I remembered.

Gough's performance is still extraordinary, and one the best performances I have ever seen on the stage. What Gough does is so brave and honest; the energy and physical intensity she gives to the role is remarkable. I couldn't take my eyes off of her for the entire performance! She has a magnetic stage presence. She made a potentially extremely unlikeable character likeable, not only through the dry wit she brought to the role, but also the humanity, making you care deeply for her. The cast around Gough are wonderful too, but this is undoubtably her show. She barely leaves the stage, and it is a Herculean effort.

The play itself is still an absolute stunner! So well-written, with surprises at every turn. McMillan's ability to turn things on their head is remarkable. The play can absolutely break your heart and shock you one moment (as it does in the last scene between Emma and her parents), but can be hilariously funny the next. All characters in the play are various shades of ‘grey’. You do not root for any particular character, as none are particularly likeable - you can agree with some of their actions, whilst then hating other choices that they make. You can tell Emma is lying through most of the first act, due to her overly grandiose theatrical speeches on the state of the world etc. In the second act, you start to believe she is telling the truth, only to have the rug pulled from underneath you when her real name is finally revealed, and you question everything that has come before. The fact that we see none of the triggers for her condition, or the real reason for her brother’s death is because we never really get under the skin of who the real Emma is, as she is unwilling to let anyone in. The character is enigma as many people are.

I can’t say I felt moved through any of it, apart from the moment between Emma and Mark during her ‘graduation’ when they were saying goodbye to one another. However, that is not to say that it is not still a stunning piece of theatre.

The staging is still brilliant. An interesting thing I noticed this time is that Emma is the only character that does not use any of the doors within the set to make her entrances or exits, instead favouring the back of the stage. I am sure someone smarter than me can come up with an intellectual argument for why this is.

I can’t wait to see what other stage pieces Denise Gough does, now that she has said goodbye to Emma.

Maybe PEOPLE, PLACES AND THINGS can be revived in another 10 years, with Jodie Comer as the lead.

5 stars.

Saw this a month or so ago -- thought it was incredibly thought-provoking, and all in all a brilliant piece of theatre. Selected details I particularly enjoyed:

- the theme of a whiting, 'clinical' effacement captured by both the staging itself and the environments it represents - see Plath's "Tulips" for a similar exploration of the contrast between affirmation of identity and the purity of stasis.
- artistic relapses and hallucinatory sequences which parallel Emma's loss of structure and direction, with scenes that are transient and trance-like in every sense of that word.
- ACT 2's bedroom transition marks the start of a figurative escape for Emma, but the physical manoeuvre serves as a literal entrapment as it descends and encircles her.
- the central equivalence between acting and deceit, and how dynamics persist cyclically in both spheres.

Even as the curtain closes, the ending plays out within an entirely commercial lens without any of the 'vividness' which Emma continually wishes for - and you're left wondering what hopes and truths, if any, remain.

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This reminded me very much of Snook's Dorian Gray, which I saw a few months earlier and enjoyed almost as equally. I'd love to get more recommendations on works with a similarly ambitious and 'transformative' scope.

Seeing as this will be available on NTLive at home in September, I doubt they’d be looking to transfer it again.

Yes it read like a valedictory to the role